State of Louisiana Must Not Appeal Federal Ruling Overturning Conviction in Angola 3 Case

State of Louisiana Must Not Appeal Federal Ruling Overturning Conviction in Angola 3 Case

(BATON ROUGE) – Amnesty International called on Louisiana
Attorney General James Caldwell today not to appeal a federal court
ruling overturning the conviction of Albert Woodfox of the ‘Angola
3’ for the second-degree murder of a prison guard in 1972. Amnesty
International has raised serious human rights concerns over the case
for many years.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Judge James Brady of the U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of Louisiana found that racial
discrimination lay behind the under-representation of African-
Americans selected to serve as grand jury forepersons in the
jurisdiction in which Woodfox, 66, who is African-American, was
retried after his original conviction was overturned in 1992.

Judge Brady found that the state had failed to meet its burden
“to dispel the inference of intentional discrimination” indicated by
the statistical evidence covering a 13-year period from 1980 to 1993
presented by Albert Woodfox’s lawyers. The state, Judge Brady found,
had failed to show “racially neutral” reasons to explain the under-
representation of African-Americans selected as grand jury
foreperson during this period.

Woodfox was convicted in 1973 along with a second prisoner,
Herman Wallace, of the murder of Brent Miller. This conviction was
overturned in 1992, but Woodfox was re-indicted by grand jury in
1993 and convicted again at a 1998 trial, and sentenced to life
imprisonment in 1999. In 2008, a U.S. District Court ruled that
Woodfox had been denied his right to adequate assistance of counsel
during the 1998 trial and should either be retried or set free. The
court also found that evidence presented by Woodfox’s lawyers of
discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson
warranted a federal evidentiary hearing. While the State appealed
the District court for a retrial – and won – yesterday’s ruling from
the evidentiary hearing, once again sees the conviction
overturned.

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed concern that many
legal aspects of this case are troubling: no physical evidence links
Woodfox and Wallace to the murder, potentially exculpatory DNA
evidence was lost by the state, and their conviction was based on
questionable testimony – much of which subsequently retracted by
witnesses. In recent years, evidence has emerged that the main
eyewitness was bribed by prison officials into giving statements
against the men. Both men have robustly denied over the years any
involvement in the murder.

Woodfox has been held since his conviction over 40 years ago in
solitary confinement. The extremely harsh conditions he has endured,
including being confined for 23 hours a day, inadequate access to
exercise, social interaction and no access to work, education, or
rehabilitation have had physical and psychological consequences.
Throughout his incarceration, Woodfox has been denied any meaningful
review of the reasons for being kept in isolation; and records
indicate that he hasn’t committed any disciplinary infractions for
decades, nor, according to prison mental health records, is he a
threat to himself or others. Amnesty International has repeatedly
called on the authorities that both he and Wallace be removed from
such conditions which the organization believes can only be
described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.

"The fact that Woodfox’s conviction has been overturned again
gives weight to Amnesty International's longstanding concerns that
the original legal process was flawed," said Tessa Murphy, an
Amnesty researcher.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning
grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million
supporters, activists, and volunteers in more than 150 countries
campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization
investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public,
and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and
dignity are denied.

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